Posted on 03/12/2009 3:49:50 AM PDT by grundle
Having a couch, love seat or spare mattress on your porch could be illegal in Pittsburgh if City Council makes final a tentative vote it took yesterday.
All of the council members present voted for legislation banning mattresses, box springs, sofas and upholstered chairs from non-enclosed porches, primarily to prevent the celebratory burning of such items, as has happened repeatedly in Oakland.
After showing council video of couches, ignited in the streets of Oakland after the Steelers Super Bowl win and during a street festival, Councilman Bruce Kraus urged his colleagues not to repeat last week's postponement of his legislation.
"Rome is burning, and we just wasted a week," he said, shortly after showing video of a blazing couch on Semple Street. "One idiot that decides to place an accelerant on the wood of that porch, and that whole row of houses could go up."
Oakland community groups came out in favor of the ordinance.
A couch on a porch "creates a health hazard. It draws pests and rodents and bugs," said Kelly Wawrzeniak, a community organizer with the Oakland Planning and Development Corp.
Mr. Kraus said he doesn't intend to restrict patio furniture that "is generally wrought iron or a vinyl composition" and is meant for outdoor use.
The penalty for keeping upholstered furniture on a non-enclosed porch would be $200 to $500, plus court costs, per day. A final vote could occur next week.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
They sure are getting the most value for their taxes in Pittsburg.
I briefly worked in Squirrel Hill teaching the inner city kids. I would see these couches and such in front or on almost every porch along each street there.
That being said, it may be an eyesore for some, but if it’s their property, they should be able to put whatever seating they want in front of their house.
We’re still AMERICA!
We were stealth bombers then and didn't know it.
Ban clothes pins, farmer matches, bikes, little boys, leaves, the rakes that make the piles, the people that use the rakes ...
I think I'm beginning to understand the psychology of those whack jobs that just say phuque it ... and start shooting.
What if you’ve got a few pillows?
*
“We’re still AMERICA!”
Not as much as we were November 3, 2008 and before!
LLS
Message to the Pittsbouqe Polute, I have a mattress and or pillow in just about every room, I have no problem with bugs, first off I do not allow folk that might be infested to come to my domicile, secondly, if there is someone posibly infested, I give them the choice of staying in the shed, or allowing a washing of clothing and self.
I have running water.
No taxpayers dollars, and no embarrasement. And no bugs!
Why don’t they just ban porches.
One thing that really bugs me is snooty democrats. They have worked overtime turning the US into 3rd world hellholes. Now they decide they are offended by the trappings of folks that live in 3rd world hellholes.
Maybe the sofas on the porch are there because they have no a/c and it is cooler on the porch.
I say people need to stand up and give them the result of their folly.
Drag a couch on the porch, throw a few empty bottles of liquor over the rail and kick back. LOL
Yeah but I’m sure if it was across the street from your lovely home you’d be the first to say NIMBY!
People are always very quick to be flexible when it isn’t their problem. It’s awful and there’s no reason a couch or sofa should be on a porch. It’s just a place for mice and other rodents to take up residence and cause a nuisance; so from a health perspective, I consider it “garbage” and nobody would allow someone to keep garbage on their porch for weeks and months....
And your method for determining that nobody entering your home has a “bug” is?
Regardless, you will have mites no doubt. And mice aren’t going to take up residence in your mattress INSIDE your home unless you are very shabby in caring for your home. Not so for outside mattress/couch/upholstery....
That is so damned true. I find it interesting, though, that all of a sudden there's a concern over "celebratory burning". Perhaps the Philly city council is trying to minimize the problems that are sure to be caused by the coming "Where's my pie?" riots.
This is just a response to some problems at the Univ. of Pittsburgh. Despite the Panthers efforts to ridicule WVU students following a number of couch burning incidents in Morgantown, they could not fight the temptation to torch a sofa or two.
Why don't they just make it illegal to burn someone else's property?
Maybe they could make up a word for it.
Arson?
Thank goodness for community organizers. /sarc
Exactly. They caught the Pitt students who did the couch burning but the Dems can’t leave it at that. Like good little Nazi’s they have to have a law, VERBOTEN!
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